Boehner: Obama Seeks GOP’s “Annihilation”

President Barack Obama is aiming to вЂњannihilateвЂќ the GOP during the presidentвЂ™s second term, House Speaker John Boehner says.

вЂњAnd given what we heard yesterday about the PresidentвЂ™s vision for his second term, itвЂ™s pretty clear to me that he knows he canвЂ™t do any of that as long as the House is controlled by Republicans,вЂќ Boehner (R-Ohio) said at a gathering of the Republican-oriented Ripon Society on Tuesday, a day after President Barack ObamaвЂ™s second Inaugural address. вЂњSo weвЂ™re expecting over the next 22 months to be the focus of this Administration as they attempt to annihilate the Republican Party. And let me just tell you, I do believe that is their goal вЂ” to just shove us into the dustbin of history.вЂќ

BoehnerвЂ™s comments came in the wake of what critics called an unusually partisan inaugural speech from Obama, who pledged commitment to liberal priorities including climate change, protecting entitlements and gay marriage.

President Barack Obama’ssecond inaugural address received high marks from base Democrats, many of whom had felt frustrated by Obama’s long and usually fruitless negotiations with Speaker John Boehner and congressional Republicans–negotiations in which Obama was seen making concession after concession to Republicans, and still failing to attract their support. And it needs to be said every time–the things Obama wants enjoy popular support.

Bottom line: Boehner’s charge that Obama wants to shove the GOP “into the dustbin of history” is laden with irony after GOP Senate Leader Mitch McConnell’s promise in 2010 to render Obama a “one-term President”–his “top priority” as you recall. Arguably, Obama’s first four years in office amounted to one massive campaign by Republicans to shove Obama “into the dustbin of history.” And as opinion polling shows the public understands today, this was done without heed to the collateral damage: to the economy, or to the public’s confidence in any of our leaders.

And now that they have failed, totally failed, it’s Obama who wants to “annihilate” the Republican Party?

No, folks. If that’s what happens, history will record they did it to themselves.

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The Democrats have actually done nothing to the Republican party…their circular firing squad has constricted to the point where even they can’t miss shooting each other. Democrats have only to enjoy the show…and give an occasional nudge as the GOP tumbles inexorably toward the edge of the “dustbin of history”.

Will Frodo (the GOP) manage to throw Gollum (the Tea Party) off its back and into the molten lava below…or will they tumle in together as they fight for the ring of power?

The only attempted annihilating I see is the attempt by Rs to annihilate statewide majorities for Dem presidential candidates by gerrymandering as many red districts as possible in states that now have R legislatures and Governors and more R CDs but which also have been going for Dem Presidents. Next step is to change to an electoral college strategy in these states of dividing electoral votes by separate CD results . This would allow Rs to win most of the electoral votes in several states that have gone for the D by sizable majorities, annihilating the will of the majority both in those states and in order to annihilate Dem presidential wins. It’s well on the way toward happening already in VA thanks to a sneak attack staged as soon as the one Dem in the legislature who could have prevented its advance left to attend the inauguration. It’s 2010 returning to haunt us in a big way, maybe big enough to hold off the inevitable results of demographic change a while longer.

If by “annihilate” Speaker Boehner means “propose things that will make the GOP look like the fools they are”, well, I’m sure the President isn’t opposed to that.

This latest debt ceiling bill might produce its own interesting results, since the House has to pass a new budget. It will be interesting to see how non-specific they can get about cutting “entitlement” spending. They’ve spent the past year trying to get Obama to propose cuts to various social safety net programs, and he’s been asking them for ideas in return.

He’s not in with the Tea Party, and he has acknowledged just how crazy the TP makes the GOP look. I don’t think Obama being politically calculating and his actions making sense have to be disjointed – why waste the effort doing two things when one will do the job? And why, as Brooks has acknowledged, should Obama do all of the compromising and proposing while Republicans just get to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’? Make the bastards actually write up what they want.

In his Crystal Ball newsletter today, political handicapper Larry Sabato described the plan вЂ” which would make it so electoral votes in key swing states were apportioned by congressional districts вЂ” as “a truly rotten one” that would “undermine democracy.” The plan вЂ” which gained traction in the Virginia state legislature this week вЂ” would heavily favor Republican presidential candidates.
Sabato writes today:
“A healthy, optimistic party is Reaganesque, convinced that it can win the future by embracing it, and by making a positive case for its philosophy and candidates to all Americans. A party in decline is Nixonian and fears the future; it sees enemies everywhere, feels overwhelmed by electoral trends, and thinks it can win only by cheating, by subverting the system and stacking the deck in its favor.”

The Virginia bill is particularly odious. Not only does it apportion winners by Congressional district (which the state legislature is also attempting to gerrymander out of cycle), but it awards the two statewide delegates to whoever wins the most CD delegates rather than by who wins the popular statewide vote.

Fortunately, one Republican on the committee voted against it, and Republicans only have the majority in the Senate by vote-breaking tie. If for some reason they pass it around that Republican (say if they miss a session and a Democrat is also out), then Republican Governor McDonnell might veto it – he’s been acting more moderate lately in possible preparation for a 2016 Presidential run, and has suggested he might veto the mid-season gerrymander bill…